The plan for 2021
For the next twelve months, I plan to focus on – and subject my family to (It’s okay, they’re good sports) – the following:
| MONTH | HABIT | BOOK INSPIRATION | MAIN WEB RESOURCE | |
| January | Fitness: Yoga | A year of living your yoga or Yoga myths by Judith Hanson Lasater | Yoga with Adriene | |
| February | Health: No sugar, no alcohol | The case against sugar by Gary Taubes | Robert Lustig, BBC, DW. | |
| March | Learning: Language | German Quickly by April Wilson, Upgrade Your German by Annemarie Künzl-Snodgrass & Sikle Mentchen, and Grammatik-Aktiv (A1-B1) | DW Deutsche-Lernen | |
| April | Health: Purging of things | The year of less by Cait Flanders | ||
| May | Health: Organizing of things/house/life* | The gentle art of Swedish death cleaning by Margareta Magnusson | Buzzfeed | |
| June | Health: Meditation | 10% Happier, Dan Harris | Zen Habits, Gaiam, Dan Harris/Happify | |
| July | Learning: Instrument (Ukulele) | |||
| August | Learning: Adulting | How to Adult by Stephen Wildish, Adulting by Kelly Williams Brown | Forbes | |
| September | Learning: Budget | You are a badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero & You’re money or your life by Vicki Robin | ||
| October | Health: Vegetarian | No Meat Athlete Cookbook by Matt Frazier & Stephanie Romine | ||
| November | Learning: DIY | |||
| December | Health: Gratitude/Graciousness | Five Minutes in the Morning, How to be happy (or at least less sad) by Lee Crutchley |
Where possible, I have linked the books back to their publisher or original writer’s website.
Just like my intention in 2015, this blog will still be about taking the year to look into improving myself, for myself, and for my family.
Each month, roughly every 28 days I will strive to focus on a different aspect of life that I would like to improve, or as I said in 2015, is “deserving of sharper focus and attention.”
New Year’s resolutions still stink. According to an INC. article by Jeff Haden, eighty percent of people who make these resolutions break them within five weeks, or even earlier! Haden quotes research by Strava which claims January 19th is “Quitter’s Day” Well, I guess this explains why I stopped blogging in 2015.
Even though I did not blog the rest of the year, I did continue to strive to work on my monthly goal list with mixed results. I successfully completed six of the goals. However, I combined the goals from February and March into one month and will do so again this year. What I didn’t accomplish was learning an instrument, or really organizing my life – I still have too much stuff. I really had to focus on being kind to myself that year while I worked through the different tasks each month, and sometimes that was a challenge. Last year I did aim to reduce my family’s use of plastic, but really felt like I was struggling throughout the year, even after partitioning my life of plastic into focus months. By the end of the year, I did reduce my and my family’s use of plastic, but I was also still frustrated because I felt I hit a wall. For that reason, it may also be on the list this year too. I bring this up because part of my dissatisfaction, I believe, was due in part to me not appreciating the small steps my family had taken too often focusing on the bigger ‘whales’.
Similar to 2015, I resolve to be more aware of myself, my body, and my mind and to nourish those aspects of myself just as I honor and nourish my marriage, my son’s growth, and my personal and professional relationships. I also resolve to be kind to myself along the way as this has been a constant struggle. As I have learned from my results in The Four Tendencies quiz, Obligers like me have a tendency to do that. We expect way more of ourselves than others really do of us. I will work to celebrate the daily victories, the small steps, even if I may not be exactly where I expected to be at the beginning of the month or year.
Stylistically, I don’t want to do the same thing I did in 2015. The content I was posting then, I think, was ultimately boring to me. I think this is also why I ultimately stopped posting. I haven’t yet figured out how I will document my progress, but it won’t be like last time.
Have you read any of the books I am considering for my monthly inspirations? If so, which books resonated with you and why? Are there any on this list that you couldn’t stand? How about my web resources?
Do you think you have a better one? What about quality web resources for learning an instrument or practicing gratitude? Please sound off in the comments to let me know.
Thirty Days to life 
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